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Al Jazeera (English)
    Baghdad Burning Blog (by Riverbend, an Iraqi civilian girl)
            Dahr Jamail's Blog from Baghdad
                Imad Khadduri's blog "Free Iraq" (scroll down for English version)

Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

What have we really won in Iraq?
The goal of protecting the US from weapons of mass destruction somehow took a public-relations turn and morphed into a goal to free the Iraqis from a dictator and bring democracy to their nation. Whether the US finds WMD that posed any serious threat to anyone is yet to be seen. However, proof of state-sponsored terrorist groups within Iraq might be more likely. Maybe. The US has now toppled a dictator, but there are many others just as bad, such as the equally dictatorial regimes in Burma, North Korea, Cuba, China, Libya, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia. Is it our job to get all the bad guys that exist?

If our goal is now democracy in Iraq, how will it be accomplished? If possible at all, it could take five years and even that's a long shot. What if there was democracy in the region? What would free elections look like? I'm afraid Americans might not like the results. Shi'a Muslims comprise over 60 percent of the Iraqi population, which means the elected leaders might be similar to Iran's religious mullahs. Or maybe the Iraqis will elect someone more like Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. If several candidates split the votes of Shiites and Kurds, it would allow the Sunni Muslim minority to unite behind a former Baath Party official. Oh great. Democracy in the Arab world might not be pretty in the eyes of most Americans. After all, radical Islamic leaders and violent terrorists are quite popular in the region. Free elections in the Middle East might mean lots of President bin Ladens and Prime Minister Saddam Husseins.

Now that the US has set a precedent of pre-emptive strikes based of potential threats, imagine what will happen if other nations adopt Bush's kill-first, ask-questions-later policy. Nearly every nation on the planet faces a threat, real or contrived. Will nuclear-armed India launch a pre-emptive strike against its bitter rival Pakistan, or vice versa? What if belligerent North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, or an Iranian government that is reportedly close to acquiring nuclear weapons, suddenly sense a threat to their national security? What if Australia says it has the right to launch pre-emptive anti-terror strikes against other nations in the region? Oooops, too late. It already happened: Australian Prime Minister John Howard sparked outrage throughout Southeast Asia when he did exactly that. Let's hope the doctrine of pre-emptive strike doesn't pose a greater threat to world peace than Saddam Hussein ever did. Let's hope the Iraq War's legacy doesn't include only the death of thousands of innocent people, more embittered, anti-American Arabs in search of revenge, another frustrating foray into nation-building, massive economic costs for the American people, and a framework for expanded, global war.

Over 100 coalition soldiers were killed, wounded or taken captive. An uncounted, and perhaps uncountable, number of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children were killed or maimed, and a nation of 23 million people lies in smoldering ruins as looters pick through the rubble. U.S. taxpayers will soon fork over $80 billion for a "down payment" on the war, and the ensuing occupation and reconstruction could cost hundreds of billions of dollars. An expanded war -- perhaps targeting Syria or Iran -- remains a distinct possibility.

So even as President Bush prepares to declare victory over Iraq, it seems fair to ask: What, specifically, has the United States won?

posted by Hal 10:34 AM